Once upon a time there was a beautiful princess named princess Natalya. She was the pick of the litter; she was smart, creative, beautiful and modest, however she was too good at being herself. When the princes and peasants talked to her; they could never look into her eyes for very long. Her soul was shone through her eyes and there were many thoughts she had; thoughts deeper than the Sea of Japan and her dreams were higher than the Eiffel tower. The princesses in the nearby kingdoms were what were desirable to the princes; they were smart enough to keep quiet; creative enough to be plain; and beautiful enough to cover their soul. Natalya saw them as contradictions.
She loved learning; she wanted to know everything about history which influences language which in turn influences culture, literature and art. It all made its own fate in history and sparked massive revolutions and renaissances; she wanted to live in one as well.
Despite all the things she learned; she was very unhappy. She was not loved and because so, she loved no one. She stayed in her castle in a quadrant that was her own. She had a library, a lab, and of course her bedroom. She had a mother and a father along with two sisters; she was the middle child. As we all know the middle child is forgotten while the older succeeds by setting a precedent and the younger is cute as a button.
She had a routine she couldn't break out of; she would wake up early, go to school and then go home to learn more. One day while it was raining, she decided to walk in the garden since all the other princesses were afraid of showing their real selves with the rain washing their faces.
As she was walking around some thunder and lightning started, making her happy to have decided to take a walk that day. As she was walking around, the ground started to shift a little bit, something she hadn't experienced before. She stumbled down, ruining her green dress. She became extremely distressed, as her mother and father would be extremely angry once they saw her in such a state; soaked from the rain, mud-caked from the ground and now a torn green dress! As we would say, her ecstasy was killed. She became melancholy and sat down on the grass. She didn't want to go to the castle, but where would she go for now?
The ground shook again and the grass shifted around! Suddenly Natalya was very afraid she forgot about her looks and started running back to the castle as fast as possible but the ground kept shaking more and more violently! As she was running; what appeared to be a giant rabbit hole opened in front of her and, catching her off guard, her momentum swung her inside before she could react. As she fell down the narrow horizontal tunnel, she started running her hands along the darkness but only felt dirt walls. Eventually she landed toughly on flat earth. It was dripping wet and dark; she couldn't see anything for a while until her eyes adjusted to see more clearly. It seemed like a cross between a grotto and a cave. She looked up to see the entrance of the tunnel and how far down she might have gone; but couldn't see the sky at all. She decided to walk around and see what she could find; not sure whether to wait for someone to find her or help herself even though she didn’t know the place.
As she looked around, she found such bizarre items such as a pocket watch, pages of ripped and torn remnants of a diary and rabbit fur! She looked at the watch to see if it could give her an idea of how long she had been in the darkness since a wrong clock is right twice a day. It read 28:467. Apparently; it was wrong? And it was wrong all day every day; so she put it in her pocket for later ironies once she returned to earth.
'What’d you find there?' asked a voice that quietly echoed throughout the grotto. Startled, Natalya looked around for the source of the voice and found no origin or explanation of it.
'Up here' said the same voice; which of course was the direction she tried once it was suggested. There were two purple eyes, as if auberigine dreams had been rubbed onto the pupils.
'I found a hypocritical clock!' she answered pleasantly, not really concerned about the strange encounter.
'Why should the clock be hypocritical and not yourself? Does the clock use real numbers? Does it not tick and tock for each concept of time as it goes by defined by space?' answered the eyes, without blinking. For such an idea; the eye's tone was very inviting; eager for discussion instead of put-downs.
'I never thought of that! So what is the context of the clock? Wait; what is your name? What do you contribute to this grotto? ‘She realized she had no information yet.
'I oversee this time. Here; time is the reason for everything. When you feel sad; time will slow down painfully, but when you feel happy, time goes by excruciatingly fast. This place isn’t meant for beings with human concepts and emotions; it drives you mad. It kills human experience. Where you are from, time is beautiful. Where you are from, time heals your wounds from bad experiences because you move on. No matter how much something hurts, you are guaranteed time to continue. If you are grieving, in 24 hours, one day will have gone by no matter what.'
'So why would this place be created? It sounds dreadful! Why would a place be created to prolong hurt and deny healing?' Natalya asked, mildly appalled though not blaming the eyes.
'You’re looking at this the wrong way. The reason beings aren't meant down here. Where you are from, you rush through anything that makes you investigate yourself. Anything that hurts you needs to leave your fate as soon as possible. Here, we prolong the feeling in order to learn about ourselves. We see things differently and become wiser sooner because we experience every hurtful thought or idea much longer than you do.' the eyes attempted to explain.
'I think I would like to leave then; and be back in my superficial world of instant gratification and fast bad experiences.' Natalya suggested.
'Well what do you want me to do about it? I can’t send you up!' the eyes explained badly.
'Well why not? If you oversee time; can’t you bend space rules and send me up?' Natalya asked; rather annoyed.
'You can't get up by clicking your heels nitwit. The only way to leave is by learning so much from bad experiences that time gets slower and slower until it just stops. But good luck, there is a fine line between the wisdom you want and the insanity you are likely to encounter.' warned the eyes.